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Shit just got real with Russia today when their government announced that the United States would be barred from the International Space Station after 2020. In addition, they will no longer sell engines to the United States for military applications. I hope that we have a bunch of them on the shelf but somehow I doubt it.

The NK-33 (1,505 kN) and RD-180 engines (4,150 kN) are two of the key powerplants for our space program. The NK-33 is used in the first stage of the Antares rocket, which launches payloads of up to 5,000 Kg into low earth orbit; basically satellites. The RD-180 is used as the first stage of the ULA (Lockheed Martin & Boeing JV) Atlas V heavy lift rocket for satellite launches. It was also projected to be used in a new Atlas V CTS (Crew Transportation System), a heavier lift version originally scheduled to come on-line in approximately 2020.

The Thiokol Ares solid rocket booster used in the Space Shuttle at 14,000,000 N is the most powerful booster ever made. The Saturn V delivered 6,770,000 N and was the most powerful liquid fueled rocket ever built. The most powerful rocket now being built in the United States is the Aerojet RS-68 liquid rocket, which produces 2,950Kn.

The current delivery vehicle to the ISS is the Russian Soyuz, which uses 4 liquid fueled rockets developing 813 Kn each at liftoff. The Zenit engines used in Sea Launch’s vehicles develop 8,100,000 N and can deliver 30,000+ lbs into low earth orbit. The Zenits are built by the Russians as well. As I am trying to outline for liberals who may not understand science, we are screwed.Houston, we have a problem.

Every rocket system is different and there is very little mixing and matching. It is, in fact, rocket science.

We were until today looking at having another Russian technology and hardware based heavy lift capability in 2020, but are now being told rather impolitely to go screw.That the message was delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin one of Putin’s closest cronies and a target of our sanctions as well as being the head of Russia’s space program, is even more to the point.

Obama’s NASA is more interested in climate change and Muslim outreach today and now we are faced with either a dispute over ownership of one of our own technology jewels or another climbdown by the Obama administration. The most popular dish in the White House Dining Room these days seems to be crow.

The is something fundamentally wrong with the administration’s ideology. It shows up in a chaotic foreign policy and a decision-making process that is almost exclusively politically driven. It now shows up in our greatest scientific endeavors where it has no place at all. It is time to face the fact that this is the most incompetent and dangerous government in our history.